India vs England Test Series 2018: 3 key player battles which might decide the outcome of the series

The first Test between England and India gets underway on the 1st of August at Birmingham. It is a series between two powerhouses of Test cricket, and hence, every moment of the series is going to be crucial for both sides.

The conditions will likely favor the home side England and make life difficult for the Indian batsmen.

England are a well-balanced side, and have two of the greatest bowlers Test cricket has ever seen, along with Ben Stokes, who is arguably the best all-rounder in the world at the moment. The only chink in their armor is their weak middle order, who have been largely inconsistent. Hence, they will depend on their two premier bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson to counter the strong Indian batting-order.

India, on the other hand, have developed into a world-class team under the captaincy of Virat Kohli. They have talented batsmen in their side who have the ability to take on any world-class bowling attack.

The only worry for India is the absence of their two strike bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Hence, the responsibility will now fall on the shoulders of Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma to take the majority of the 20 English wickets in each game.

The Indian opening batsmen will also have the responsibility of negotiating the new ball in order to protect the shaky middle order.

The Test series is going to be an exciting affair, with India looking to prove their ability in overseas conditions. Let us have a look at the 3 key player battles to watch out for.

#3 Alastair Cook vs Ishant Sharma

This battle between two experienced campaigners for their respective countries will be a crucial contest to watch out for. The leading run scorer among those players who are still playing Test cricket, Cook has been a consistent performer for England over the years. Out of his phenomenal 12145 runs in test cricket, Cook, in 25 matches against India, has scored 2104 runs at an average of 50.09. Incidentally, Cook's highest score of 294 also came against India at Birmingham in 2011.

Ishant Sharma, on the other hand, is a tricky customer to face. Due to his height, he extracts extra bounce from the surface and takes the ball away from the left-handed batsman. Having picked up 25 wickets in 7 matches at an average of 40.84 in England, Ishant Sharma will have to step up and spearhead the bowling attack in the absence of Kumar and Bumrah.

Cook has been dismissed 9 times against Ishant in the past, with a tendency to fall over on the flick proving to be his undoing. Ishant's shape away from the southpaw could serve him well this series also.

#2 Joe Root vs Kuldeep Yadav

Enticing battle of wits

This battle between the prolific English batsman and the young Indian chinaman bowler has been quite an interesting battle in the limited overs format. Having got the better of Joe Root thrice in the T20s and first ODI, Kuldeep was effectively countered in the remaining 2 ODIs. The key to Root's success was that he gradually learned how to pick Yadav from his hand, instead of looking to read him off the pitch.

However, it is a completely different ball game in test cricket. Being one of the best batsmen of the modern era in test cricket, Root has scored 1102 runs in 11 matches at an average of 68.87 against India. Kuldeep, on the other hand, is relatively new in test cricket, having made his debut against Australia at Dharamshala on 25th March 2017. He had very impressive figures of 4/68 in that match.

Everyone is well aware of England's weakness against wrist spin and hence, India could exploit it by picking Kuldeep ahead of Ashwin and Jadeja. In spite of playing Kuldeep quite well towards the end of the ODIs, it will be a difficult task to negotiate his variations in test cricket, even for a batsman of Joe Root's calibre.

#1 Virat Kohli vs James Anderson

This is the most decisive battle. Regarded as one of the most deadly swing bowlers in the world, Anderson has proved to be very tough to negotiate for almost every batsman in the world, with even the great Sachin Tendulkar struggling occasionally.

In 22 matches, Anderson has picked up 86 wickets at an average of 28.17 against India. Virat Kohli, on the other hand, has a miserable record in England. He has scored just 134 runs in 5 matches at an average 13.40. He has found it extremely tough to negotiate swing bowling due to his weakness of reaching for the ball outside the off-stump, and has been dismissed by Anderson 5 times in the past.

Hence, the performance of Virat Kohli specifically against Anderson will be crucial for India's success.